Police Use Jaws Of Life To Pry Woman From Truck

January 17, 1985|By Neil Santaniello, Staff Writer

PALM SPRINGS — Fire rescuers using the Jaws of Life pried open a crumpled car to remove a 25-year-old woman injured when her pickup truck veered off the road in a heavily populated residential neighborhood and, going 50 mph, slammed into two buildings, police said Wednesday.

Marie Porten of Palm Springs was in stable condition at Doctors Hospital in Lake Worth after the 10:04 p.m. accident Tuesday, police said. No one else was hurt, they said.

Porten`s Chevy pickup truck, totaled in the accident, hewed out a chunk of a brick house in the 300 block of Alemeda Drive and crashed into the garage of another home, knocking down a wall and partially caving in the roof, said Lt. Wes Smith.

The vehicle traveled 260 feet off the road and was moving at more than 50 mph in a posted 25 mph zone, he said.

``She traveled across the sidewalk, ran through a couple of yards, hit one house, bounced off and smashed into another,`` he said.

The owners of both residences were home at the time, but they were not hurt, he said.

No charges have been filed against Porten, of the 500 block of Purdy Lane in Palm Springs, although Smith said police are considering charging her with reckless driving.

He said two officers handling a domestic dispute in the neighborhood saw the pickup speed by and heard a crash.

The officers were at the scene in a minute, Smith said, where they found the pickup smashed up inside Harry C. Warren`s garage at 356 Alemeda Drive. Warren had fallen asleep in a chair inside his home and awoke when he heard the pickup plow into his garage, Smith said.

Damage to the garage was estimated at $2,000, he said.

Before collapsing a wall of the garage, the pickup had nicked a corner of Richard T. Wright`s house at 352 Alemeda Drive, causing $1,500 in damage, Smith said.